Quarter: Spring 2005
Professor: Dr. Dennis Minor Office:George T. Madison Hall 104
Louisiana Tech University
Ruston, LA 71272
Phone: (318) 257-2660
E-mail:
|
Message about
this syllabus to the student taking this course:
The following syllabus is very information-intensive: it gives much more information than the usual class syllabus. It gives you information about the course, about the types of papers to be written, information about how to write those papers, the assignments week-by-week, and links to the rest of the web site, where you will find other necessary information. This syllabus is not to be read just as a list of assignments and dates; it must be studied so that you will have access to the information necessary to complete the assignments in this course. |
Student Honor Code: | In Acccordance with the Academic Honor Code, students pledge the following: "Being a student of higher standards, I pledge to embody the principles of academic integrity.” |
Markel,
Mike. Technical
Communication: Situations
and Strategies. 7th Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's,
2004.
(Availabale at the Tech bookstore) The Bedford/St. Martin's web site has a section on this textbook, which included information about the chapters, self-study quizzes, and additional projects, exercises, and study cases. Click here to go to this web site. |
The Technical Writing Course Packet is now
required for all
English 303 classes at Louisiana Tech. It is available at the
Louisiana
Tech Bookstore (see Bookstore link below the textbooks).
The Course packet gives information about many aspects of technical writing, and includes information about using Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Inside the packet is a sheet entitled "Plagiarism Statement," which must be read, signed, and returned to Dr. Minor either in person or by mail. |
Supplemental Textbook:
Brusaw, Alred, and Oliu. Handbook of Technical Writing, 6th Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2001. (Available at the Tech bookstore) This book is optional; it is a good handbook for students who anticipate doing writing in other courses and on the job. No English 303 assignments will be made from this book. |
Link to Louisiana Tech Book Store -- to order books online Links to some representative
online book stores:
|
Course Guidelines and Expectations for English 303 -- Internet:
Pay particular attention to the
following Course Guidelines; they
outline the expectations for this course as to graded work, ungraded
work,
and participation in the course:
Operating Rules for this Class:Since there will be no regular class meetings or lectures, it is necessary that each student do the reading assignments, look through all the material available through the World Wide Web, on this site and others, and bring up any questions or problems by personal visits, by telephone, or by email.It is possible that you may be asked to check in by E-mail every day or so; it is necessary that you check your E-mail at least once a day and that you keep in contact with the teacher. If you do not respond quickly to email or if you have not been keeping up with your work, both graded and ungraded, an email message will be sent to your academic advisor, informing the advisor of your non-participation.To receive credit for the course, all assigned work, whether it is to be graded or whether it is required but not graded, must be satisfactorily completed.
A POINT DEDUCTION OF 5 POINTS PER CLASS DAY LATE will be made for all late work. The following are the various assignments, their order to be turned in, and their relative values in the final grade (given as #x):
As noted above, there are penalties for late papers and, since many of the assignments are related to doing the technical report, getting behind on one assignment may well make several assignments late.Also, the assignments have to be done well enough that the student is prepared for the next phase; in other words, a satisfactory topic must be picked before the Proposal can be attempted, and a satisfactory Proposal must be done before the Sentence Outline can be written. |
It would be beneficial to read or at least look through all the material included about technical writing on this Internet site before you begin this course (or during the first week), so that you will become familiar with the various papers and concepts involved. Printing out this material and keeping it in an indexed notebook would be an easy way to have access to all of it without the need to be online to access needed information. |
Also, since this course does not have class meetings or lectures, your textbook and the Internet materials are your only resources for this course. You should read them over, mark them up, and make notes about important points. The process of reading and making notes that convert the information into your own words will help you to remember the course material. |
To keep up-to-date on your progress in this course, consult the Checklist of Assignments.To assist you in your reading of the assignments in the textbook, consult the section entitled Textbook Focus Section; it is also listed in the Table of Contents. |
Grading Equivalents:
F . . . 0-55 (depending
on errors) |
Final
Grading Scale:
0-59
= F |
Explanation of Assignments:
(The Table of Contents will take you to information of Text Formatting, Explanation of Assignments, and a listing of each assignment.)
Here
is the order of assignments
and a brief description of
each one:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weekly Syllabus
The following assignments and dates are subject to change if conditions during the quarter require that such be done.
The homework during the first few weeks is intended to get you to focus on the terms and concepts that are important in technical writing; these terms and concepts need to be learned during the first few weeks. Then, for the rest of the course, those terms and concepts will be applied in the writing assignments. Some of them will appear on the Final Examination.The Textbook Focus section, accessible from each week's assignments, gives important information to you concerning textbook information you are expected to know. The Textbook Focus section tells you the terms and concepts that you should know and points out specific pages that you must be sure to read. Also, the Textbook Focus section adds some explanations you need to know. Be sure to read the Focus section for each week's assignments.
March 14 |
March 21 |
March 28 |
April 4 |
April 11 |
April 18 |
April 25 |
May 2 |
May 9 |
May 16 |
To view the Calendar of Due Dates for English 303, click here. |
First: Be sure that you have sent your email address to Dr. Minor; that should have been done before the first day of class. Also, you need to send an email to Dr. Minor giving the name, email address, and department of your academic advisor.
Consult the Textbook
Focus material
for some guidelines for studying these chapters.
Read all the material in the Table of Contents about Formatting of Technical Writing Papers.
Read the Introductory Information on
the
Long
Report, discussing it as an analytical, problem-solving
project.
Look at the Web material on Headings, Lists, and Illustrations, available through the Table of Contents. This information is very important for the formatting of all of your papers in this course.
The purpose of this homework is to acquaint you with some of the basic concepts in technical writing; it is information you would have received in lectures at the beginning of an in-class English 303 course. These summaries should be 1--4 pages per chapter (as is appropriate for the assignment). Look in the Other Terms and Concepts section of the Table of Contents for explanations of Summaries and Abstracts. Summaries are also called Descriptive Abstracts. In effect, one puts the author's ideas into your own words, retaining some of the proportions and structure of the original. The summary emphasizes the main points and may leave out minor points and examples. The textbook discusses Summarizing, beginning on page 142. Via e-mail (if possible), by Friday, March 18, 2005, submit the following homework summaries, which will not be graded:
|
Be sure that you have returned your signed "Plagiarism Statement" from the Technical Writing Course Packet to Dr. Minor, either in person or by mail. The English Department requires that you buy this Packet and sign and submit the "Plagiarism Statement." |
This Week, Make Arrangements for the First Writing Assignment:
Week
Two Homework
(will not be graded); due
on or by Thursday, March 24
|
The information included in this
syllabus for Week Three is
very
important for this entire course. Be sure you read all the
material
for this week. It covers the first paper you are to write,
information
to help guide you in choosing a topic for the Long Report, and the
Proposal
for the Long Report. All this information is necessary for you to
do the necessary assignments correctly.
For this week, read:
Go to the Table of Contents and read the following listed Topics to prepare you for the first paper: Formatting of Technical Writing Papers -- This information will be used in all of the papers to be written in this course. Introduction
At this point, to be sure you understand the heading system, look over the following web material: |
All papers done in this course will
start with the same basic
major
sections: the Introduction,
the Body of the text,
and a
Conclusion.
Here is an example of the overall
paper structure of a technical
writing
paper, showing the major sections of the paper and the use of 4 levels
of headings. The left side shows headings as they appear in the
paper;
the right side shows how the same paper would appear as an
outline.
Note that the headings at each level appear in the outline at the same
level. That shows how an outline can tell you how to place
headings
in your paper.
TITLE Introduction This section would give preliminary information about the problem to be solved Main Body of Paper First Section of the Body (3rd order heading) Subdivision of the First Section (4th order heading)Second Section of the Body (3rd order heading) Subdivision of the Second Section (4th order heading)Third Section of the Body (3rd order heading) Subdivision of the Third Section (4th order heading) (2nd order heading) This section would give the overall conclusion.
|
Outline
Equivalents:
I. Introduction II. Main Body of Paper A. First Section of Body 1. Subdivision 2. Subdivision B. Second Section of Body 1. Subdivision 2. Subdivision C. Third Section of Body 1. Subdivision
2. Subdivision
|
Specific Explanation of the first paper, to be written on campus or at a monitored site: A topic will given to you that is similar to the one in Markel discusses in Chapter 8, "Organizing Your Information," under "Contrast and Comparison," on pp. 169-170. The specific topic will be given to you when you come in to write the paper. This paper will be a short, problem-solving one. The problem will be solved by comparing two or more possible solutions to a problem; the possible solutions will be compared by using criteria,arranged in the Part-by-Part pattern shown on page 170. Notice that on p.170, in the example, Price, Resolution, and Print Speed are the Criteria. Model 5L and Model 6L are the possible solutions to be compared using the Criteria. Read the following information carefully and be sure you understand it as it applies to organizing and writing a paper which uses Criteria to compare several possible Solutions. (note that Criteria is plural; Criterion is singular.) As an example of this type of paper -- On page 170, the Problem would be "Choosing the Best Printer." (The topic of your paper will be different; it will NOT be comparing printers).
The following example takes the outline of sections and headings (given above) and adds specific content about choosing a printer to make it an analytical Comparison paper. This paper shows how your own comparison paper should be structured, using this system of headings and with the heading placed as shown on this example:
To summarize this first paper:
|
Beginning the Long Report:
A
Preliminary or Tentative Topic
for the 2000-word Report is due as close to April 1, 2005, as
possible -- as a preliminary stage leading up to the PROPOSAL.
The
tentative topic or topics may be e-mailed to me. The
topic material you submit must include a
list
of about 10 tentative sources; this list of sources will
change
as you continue to do research and refine your topic and supporting
evidence.
These
sources should come both
the library and from
the Internet.
Note
that this TOPIC is not the same thing as the longer PROPOSAL; it
is the first step in
developing the PROPOSAL, which must be on the TOPIC you have submitted
and had approved.
The following information is essential for your writing of the Long Report; you should review it now to give you a better idea of the type of report that is to be written, the structure of that report, and the sources available to you for doing the research and documentation of the report. And, as you work on the report, refer back to this information. It is best accessed through the Table of Contents.
The Long Report will count a major part of your overall grade. The material linked in below is very important; it will help you in choosing an appropriate topic, conducting research on that topic, and drafting and finalizing the Long Report itself. This work takes several weeks; it will begin with the Tentative Topic, due the third week of class. The next step will be the Proposal, which will be due the sixth week of class. The next step in the Long Report will be the Sentence Outline, due the eighth week of class. You will need to refer back to this information many times during this quarter as you develop the Proposal, Sentence Outline, Note Cards, and the Long Report itself. First, review the Long Report Information (especially the section on Sample Long Report Topics) for more information and some ideas about this initial topic. Consult the English 303 Table of Contents for information about the Long Report. It includes examples of the Long Report sections. The links below will take you to a discussion of Researching the Long Report; it includes some Internet sources covering a wide range of topics. As you review the Long Report information, notice that the Long Report is to be written as a comparison and contrast, with several possible solutions and several criteria, just as your first, in-class paper was done. The content of the Long Report must follow your Sentence Outline as to content, order, and subdivisions. You must become familiar with ALL of the information explained in the section on Researching the Long Report. |
To begin the
Proposal, the first graded part of
the
assignments leading up to the Long Report:
|
There are example graphics in the Examples
of Each Section
of
the
Long Report; also, be sure to read the discussion of Graphics
in the Logical Analysis and other Terms and
Concepts
section.
|
The Proposal, the next graded assignment, is due no later than Monday, April 18, 2005, by 4 p.m.
Next, begin study of the Sentence Outline, to be due Monday of Week Eight. See the information under Week Seven for instructions on how to do the Sentence Outline.
A discussion of Sentence Outlines is contained in the Sentence Outlines section of the Table of Contents. A Sentence Outline Exercise is available for you to work on; it is discussed under Week 6.For this week, read:
This paper will be either (1) A Set of Instructions, (2) a Description of a Specific Process, or (3) a Description of a General Process, to be done from an assignment to be sent to you specifying one of these three paper types. This assignment will be sent to each student by email after the Proposal has been submitted; the email will tell you whick kind of paper (one of the 3 listed above) you are to write and the topic of that paper. The finished paper will be due within 2 days of receiving the assignment. The procedures for doing this paper and the date it is due will be included as part of the email assignment. To prepare for writing this paper, review the material on
Instructions and
the two kinds of Process Descriptions
in
the Process
and Instruction Paper section of the Table
of Contents. This
information is also important for the Final Examination. As part
of the Final Examination, you will have to write one of the following
types of papers: a
Set of Instructions, a Description of a Specific Process, or a
Description
of a General Process. Be sure you understand the differences
in these three types of papers, both as to content and structure. This assignment will be sent to
you a day or so after you have submitted your proposal. |
Whenever you are ready -- at some
point before
you put your Sentence Outline together -- request
by email that you be sent the Sentence
Outline Exercise; when you have finished that exercise,
request
by email that you be sent the corrected Sentence Outline exercise
so that you can check your outline against it. You do
not need to
send the finished outline exercise; doing the exercise is for your
own
use in learning how to do the Sentence Outline.
Assigned Reading:
This work this week involves
studying for the Note Cards,
the
Practice
Grammar Test, and developing the Sentence Outline.
The
following information discusses these three assignments:
Note Cards (15 note cards, 5 source cards, and 5 photocopied pages) need to be turned in before the Sentence Outline, if at all possible. They will not be graded but are required so that I can see that you are getting research done, that you are taking notes accurately, and that you are taking down the needed bibliographical information. |
As the first part of your research documentation, Note Cards are due. You are to turn in the following as beginning source material for your paper:
If Internet material is used, turn in hard copies of the source pages; be sure to include the Internet address. The Note Card material is part of the section of the information on the Long Report, listed under Week Three, Links to Information about the Long Report. The most thorough information about research, writing, and
documenting
the Long Report is given in the section of the web site entitled Reseraching
the Long Report. You should read all the
information
there. It should answer any questions you have about taking
notes,
using notes in the text of the report, and citing the sources of the
report
(report documentation). |
Ungraded Test on Writing Effective Sentences -- to be sent to each student via email, with instructions. When you are ready to take the test, send Dr. Minor an email requesting the Practice Test on Writing Effective Sentences. It will not be sent until you request it. He will send it as an email attachment. When you have taken the test, email Dr. Minor, requesting the answers to the test on Writing Effective Sentences. The answers will be sent as an email attachment. Then, check your test to see how many of the Test questions you missed and study those areas for the Final Examination. The Final Examination will have 30--35 points worth of questions based on the Practice Test on Writing Effective Sentences and the Answers and Notes accompanying it. If you do not take this test and use the results for study, you may lower your final examination grade by 1 or 2 letter grades. The textbook also contains several Appendices dealing with
grammar and
wording; check the Table of Contents of Markel. |
|
The Sentence Outline is
due
Monday, May 2, by 4 p.m. It must be
done
on the topic of the Proposal; it must be done according to the
instructions
and models on the English 303 web site.
Now, with the Sentence Outline completed, it is time to begin drafting the Long Report. The Long Report and all of its supporting materials is due on Monday, May 16, by 4 p.m.
Begin study of the sections of the long report: Sections of the Long Report. You must use this section of the Table of Contents as your guide to writing the Long Report. The information there covers such items as spacing, headings, and documentation and also gives examples of each section of the Long Report.Assigned Reading:
Review this material:
Work on drafting and revising the
Long Report.
Assigned Reading:
|
Information to be reviewed for the Final Examination:
The Letter of Application and Resume are due at or before the Final Examination. |
The Final Examination is to be taken on either Thursday, May 19 or Friday, May 20. Graduating seniors must take the exam in time to submit their final course grades on Tuesday, May 17. The final examination must be done at a pre-arranged time either on campus at Louisiana Tech University or at a remote monitored site. Students taking this course from a remote site must make early arrangements to take the final exam under a proctor. These arrangements must be made jointly by the student, teacher, and proctor to the examination. This examination will cover terms and concepts, grammar, sentence structure and wording, and a short essay. More information is given in the material on the Final Examination. When you
request it, a final examination study list will be sent to you
by email. |
|